“He’s an angel, not a saint.” – Michael He didn’t ask to be her guardian angel, he didn’t want to fall to earth, he didn’t know it would be so painful to hide his wings and surrender his heart. He pays attention to her every word, tries to stop his feathers rustling like a bird, […]
Tag: Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
Yesterday’s Headlines
Daily life is abbreviated, compounded and hyphenated by headline news. Internet starts to click with the over-75s while there are tough new controls for web giants, checkouts thrown out by Amazon. No one is safe. Ex-football coach faces 29 child sex charges, hit-and-run pair jailed, and teaching was like going into battle, says high-flyer. There’s […]
Mixed Media
Metallic red desk lamp spotlights a mug, paints concentric halos in cold coffee and reflects off the computer screen. From the gutter above the window, rain drips; fingers make the keyboard click in time with dancing words that form into lines. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Bits of […]
Sad Pathetic Fallacy
The world was disappointing, dry and thirsty, full of sadness, longing for some artistic creativity, when the slate sky flickered with metallic electricity. Thunder rumbled. The brawling river, rushing with rain-swollen flow, swung into a roaring curve below towards a thundering waterfall, rearing in glassy surges, snagging on the riverbed, like King Lear on the heath: […]
Symbiosis
(found in a scientific article) Trespassing algae slip inside, make no attempt to hide their intimate intentions. The salamander eggs are secure from the Ambystoma egg lovers – they only want a cuddle and some warmth. It’s a win-win situation: the algae feast on waste of nitrogen and carbon seeping from the eggs, photosynthesising oxygen, a […]
Landscape
we’re floating adrift across a pallid landscape in a thawing rift after static winter months forge devastating new paths Kim M. Russell, 2017 Jane Friedlicher (1924-2014) Landscape, 1984, Lithograph on Paper My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Artistic Interpretations with Margaret – Small Town Inspiration Margaret says that she recently visited The Hickory Museum […]
Silenced by a Particle
I once sat in an exam, looking for the one right answer, reluctant to accept the duality of light. How does light wave? Should I wave back? According to Einstein, light is a continuous field of waves, which makes me feel wanted. But then, it seems, light travels away, leaves as an electromagnetic wave, divides, […]
The Second to Last Bird of Sunset
I look up at a vacant sky; except for one small cloud and the inkling of a crescent moon it’s empty – and then, there they are, swerving, climbing, swooping, flocking into the sunset. Sometimes, as the sun drops into the dark slot of night, the second to last bird’s wings briefly singe, forever cast […]
Hobgoblin Shadows
When mother forgot to shut the curtains at night, outside the window the sulphurous street light invaded my bedroom and filled it with shadows of slippery hobgoblins with fingers so thin they could fit in my ears and burrow under my skin, squirm into the feathers that softened my pillows, and wait until I’d fallen […]
This Little Piggy
A little girl holds on to a chair, teetering in her mother’s shoes, shiny leather stilettos, her feet squashed down into the toes. Granny smiles, forgets for a moment the bunions on her aching feet, the pain when walking down the street, the raw skin and unbearable heat. After bath time, with pyjamas on, they […]
writing in north norfolk 